Thursday, October 30, 2008

Where to go, what to do...?

I've decided this year to forgo the usual debaucheries and shenanigans of the All Hallow's Eve Holiday weekend. My special lady friend has decided to go all out and hit it all as hard as possible. I'm going camping... somewhere. I feel a little blessed in that I always find this process of deciding where to go a bit daunting every single time I get out. Being surrounded by what we're surrounded by is truly amazing, but seriously, it can be tough to decide what to take advantage of. Do I want pines and aspens, or redock and juniper? Canyon hikes and scrambles or a weekend of lip-ripping trout? I was stymied into a blissful paralysis from the myriad possibilities until I got a look at the book cover shown above. Canyon Wilderness of the Southwest by Jon Ortner is one of the most beautiful photographic journeys I've ever seen. It's a huge book with a couple of fold-out pages that are so huge they almost seem to mimic a condor wing-span. It's impossible to look at and not yearn for the feel of sandstone under your bare feet. Oh, and it only costs around 200 bones... Limited edition and all that.

About Me

I came West from Boston to ski bum for a season in 1983, and forgot to
go back. But I didn't forget how to be a bum. I now live in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains
with my wife and our two teen-aged kids. I am the author of three
books about living and parenting in the modern American West: The Monkey Wrench Dad (2008),Why I'm Against It All (2003), and
A Wilder Life: Essays from Home (1995).